August 23, 2013

Bike Share Helps to Close Gender Gap

In a blog post a couple of weeks ago, I discussed the gender gap in biking citing a new report, Women on a Roll. The report, which was created by Women Bike, a new program from the League of American Bicyclists, outlined its accomplishments toward achieving gender equality in biking. In 2009, women only accounted for 24 percent of all bike trips.

But how do bike shares help to reduce the gender gap in biking? Carolyn Szczepanski, director of communications for Women Bike, noted that bike shares address most of the issues with biking that women commonly cite. Szczepanski explained that bike shares allow for easy access and convenience to multiple destinations. They are multi-purpose and accessible for short trips, allowing women to bike in regular clothes and feel comfortable while they’re riding. Bike shares allow women to feel more connected to a community. Additionally, bike shares address some of the problems of snobbery and machismo that women have faced in many bike shops.

Bike share systems are becoming more common in U.S. cities. Launched in 2010, D.C.'s Capital Bikeshare was one of the first bike share programs in the country. Citi Bike, the largest bike-share program in the country, with 6,000 bicycles, just launched in May. This summer, Chicago created a 4,000-bike system, and the San Francisco Bay Area will launch its program at the end of the month with 700 bikes.

With an increase in bike-share programs, we might see in the upcoming years more women participating in the sport. Bicycling is not only good for your health and beneficial for community building, but it's also good for the environment by replacing vehicles that run on fossil fuels. Let's move beyond oil and gas and move toward clean, green transportation.

TrackBack

User comments or postings reflect the opinions of the responsible contributor only, and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any posting. The Sierra Club accepts no obligation to review every posting, but reserves the right (but not the obligation) to delete postings that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate.